Curse

Bristlebane · Feb 14, 2014, 01:01 PM // 13:01

Was looking over skills, and then I saw Dark Bond. A skill I rarely ever used myself or on heroes, one of the reason it's in Blood Magic which I rarely use.

It's effect it's not tied to attribute and even at 0 Blood Magic, it outlasts it's recharge. Now here's the idea I had:

What about if you made a party consisting of 8 primary or secondary necroes, each with Dark Bond, a minion skill, and rest is either pure offense or lighter heals.

Pros:
Everyone would have a 75% damage reduction as long as they have a minion.
And minions are usually good meat shields otherwise. Since minions will die a lot quicker, it would work well with Death Nova.

Cons:
Slow cast, semi-long recharge. Some vulnerability to enchantment strip.
Requires a minion for each hero/party member. Would work poorly in areas with few exploitable corpses.
Blood of the Master is out of the question, it would most likely instakill the necro. Monk area heals or Vampiric minions would be better.

Don't take this idea too serious, it's mostly a fun idea which I'm curious how well it could be abused if setting your mind to it.

Edit: Please try to be constructive, I'm well aware skills like "Save Yourselves!" might be superior and not locking most/everyone to necro profession. See it as a challenge to try make fun builds using different skills we haven't used to death yet.

Cuilan · Feb 14, 2014, 01:49 PM // 13:49

Big AoE and attribute points. You'll be investing attribute points into having tougher minions which would mean less for other attributes. And minions still die.

Bristlebane · Feb 14, 2014, 01:52 PM // 13:52

Did you ever say anything positive, Cuilan?
Like I said, this is merely a play with a fun idea, you need 0 points in Blood Magic, and full necro parties already exists. And in bomber builds you don't need tougher minions, you need them to die next to foes.

Now please, if you have anything more constructive to add, please do.

Cuilan · Feb 14, 2014, 02:00 PM // 14:00

If it's a fun idea then just slap together whatever skills.

There's also the issue of the skill having a 2 second activation time when there's knock-downs and interrupts.

Why don't you wave your magical invincibility wand when all the minions die and Dark Bond isn't able to transfer the damage? Minions and Death Nova only do so much damage anyway.

infoscott · Feb 14, 2014, 07:08 PM // 19:08

I sporadically but Dark Bond on my MM hero Olias, depending on what PvE scenario we're likely to meet. In areas where the party takes a lot of AoE damage, I especially like it. The idea is to run weaker minions enchanted with Death Nova and Dwayna's Sorrow:

Olias: Aura of the Lich {E}, Animate Bone Minions, Animate Shambling Horror, Death Nova, Dark Bond, Signet of Lost Souls, Dwayna's Sorrow, Patient Spirit. Death 16, SR 9, Healing 10, rest in Blood (for duration of Dark Bond).

The basic idea here is to use Olias's share of the AoE damage taken to transfer in part to the minions and start setting off Death Nova and Dwayna's Sorrow. Death Nova quickly spikes down the damage dealer and Dwayna's Sorrow kicks in 1/2 strength Heal Party spells to recover from the AoE damage.

It's not just theorycraft, I've tested it, works great!

Bristlebane · Feb 14, 2014, 08:27 PM // 20:27

I'm going to try out this a bit more as well. First goal is to see how well I can do in a 4-party area with all necroes, second is to see the same with any regular player build and 3 necroes. First after that I try out 8-party areas.
I will definitely bring Dwayna's Sorrow and Death Nova. Will also see if Jagged Bones is of any use on secondary necroes with Death Magic and Icy Veins or secondary elite skill on others.

Wenspire · Feb 16, 2014, 08:00 PM // 20:00

I believe since minion life is tied to your investment into Death tree that the best it will do is absorb one hit worth of damage transfer in HM before your minion dies. That's assuming you don't really invest into Death. It's a tough tradeoff for using up two skill slots.

I think just having a single dedicated MM already mitigates enough damage for the whole party.

Just my $0.02...

Bristlebane · Feb 16, 2014, 08:09 PM // 20:09

I did some basic testing in Plains of Jarin HM. My own bar was blank without any attribute points invested and 3 necros. 2 of them using bond and minions, third necro was carrying 4 healing prayer skills. While it's not a hard map, the builds itself wasn't too advanced but showed a bit potential. Will try clear a set area with and without the bond in same manners to see if any noticable differences.

Zephyr of Light · Feb 16, 2014, 10:26 PM // 22:26

The thing is that, this skill only has great effect if your hero can upkeep more minions then them dying from redirected damage, however it should show some efficiency when taking the first 2-3 heavy damage spikes.

And only for a 3-5 Blood Magic investment, its definately a not too bad skill.
Especially for those players that solo alot using MM Builds.

Bristlebane · Feb 16, 2014, 11:02 PM // 23:02

You can actually compare Dark Bond as giving a conditional +80 armor without needing any attribute investment, and without affecting the armor cap.

Anaraky · Feb 17, 2014, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Interesting idea. While the most obvious way to take this is to add the skill unto a pretty standard Minion Bomber I wonder how well it would work if designed around Bone Fiends, Blood Bond, Shelter and Barbs/MoP. Will probably not work very well but might be fun exploring.

CaelanB · Apr 29, 2014, 08:15 PM // 20:15

i quite like the idea i've always enjoyed shaking up the meta. though the long cast times and tying everyone to second necro is quite a large drawback. Not to mention having to lean into the death magic line for more dureable minions and the chance that it could easily get stripped regardless

Bristlebane · Apr 29, 2014, 08:33 PM // 20:33

This idea was more of a thought experiment, I doubt it would shake up any meta. As for me it's just fun to play with different ideas.

* Tying everyone to necromancer, yes that's a drawback. Although many also run tripple necro setups, and you might not go full length and tie up every hero to it.

* As for Death Magic for more durable minions, I experimented with Verata's Gaze @5 to allow heroes gain minions without high requirements. One or two necromancers with Malign Intervention and high Death Magic could then feed stronger minions to other heroes.

I have tested those skills on heroes with mixed results. They do use it, but they can be a little bit slow at using Gaze. The big advantage of Gaze is that it's 5e 1c 5r, taking a minimal impact on other chars energy or spell casting. And if they Gaze minions of an enemy, that's just a bonus.